My Hard Drives Can't Backup!

Well-known member

I have 11,000,000 files on my main hard drive. When I try and backup the files, it says something about "this file cannot be moved" and asks me to "continue" or "skip". It seems I am loosing thousands of my files in my backup process, anyone seen this happen before? What do I do?

Well-known member

I have 11,000,000 files on my main hard drive. When I try and backup the files, it says something about "this file cannot be moved" and asks me to "continue" or "skip". It seems I am loosing thousands of my files in my backup process, anyone seen this happen before? What do I do?

It is possible that whatever you're trying to backup is an actual running process... I normally only see such an issue (error) with Microsoft Windows as Linux can safely copy things or unload & load if needed.

May want to boot up Linux and try making a backup with it. Even a Live CD (with no install) should help you.

Well-known member

I have 11,000,000 files on my main hard drive. When I try and backup the files, it says something about "this file cannot be moved" and asks me to "continue" or "skip". It seems I am loosing thousands of my files in my backup process, anyone seen this happen before? What do I do?

Is the total size of the backup bigger than your USB drive? If so, Windows backup isn't going to work. Either find backup software that allows you to backup to multiple drives, or get a larger USB drive that will hold the backup.

Well-known member

Is the total size of the backup bigger than your USB drive? If so, Windows backup isn't going to work. Either find backup software that allows you to backup to multiple drives, or get a larger USB drive that will hold the backup.

Well-known member

I can set a full backup of my hard drive to my USB drive with absolutely no issues at all. Are you trying to just copy the drive? If so, that will not work. If you want to create an image, there's specialized software that will do that. You can't just "copy" your hard drive to another.

Well-known member

I can set a full backup of my hard drive to my USB drive with absolutely no issues at all. Are you trying to just copy the drive? If so, that will not work. If you want to create an image, there's specialized software that will do that. You can't just "copy" your hard drive to another.

Well-known member

No. No. No. No. That is NOT the way to do a backup. Either use the built in backup feature in Windows or get specialized software that does it.

If you're looking for something that allows you to take an image of your drive so all you need to do is re-image it in the case of a failure, you need something like Ghost or Clonezilla. (In your case, I'd recommend purchasing Ghost as it's easier to use for a novice.)

Well-known member

No. No. No. No. That is NOT the way to do a backup. Either use the built in backup feature in Windows or get specialized software that does it.

If you're looking for something that allows you to take an image of your drive so all you need to do is re-image it in the case of a failure, you need something like Ghost or Clonezilla. (In your case, I'd recommend purchasing Ghost as it's easier to use for a novice.)

Well-known member

If you're going to copy one file to another location, yes, it's backed up. If you copy ten files to another location, they're backed up. If you're going to backup your entire hard drive, use the built in feature of windows, or get backup software.

Active member

On a windows computer open My Computer and find the drive. Right click on it and select format. There will be a pull down selection for Fat or NTFS. On a Mac I don't know.

Also what everyone is saying about backup software is correct to a point. 1 problem with creating a backup like that is that the files are not accessable directly from Windows (I think the same is true of Macs). If you want to be able to use the files then what you are wanting to do it correct if they are just data files; pictures, mp3 etc etc.